It wasn’t until yesterday, April 6, 2014 CE, when we read the post on our blogsite from Blackbird, that we realized how our words could be misconstrued by those wanting to push their own agenda or wanting an excuse to denigrate more than forty-five (45) years’ work by the Frosts in promoting Wicca. Thank you, Blackbird, for your post; but please note: The text reads:
sponsor or father.
The regrettable problem that has bugged us for forty (40) years now is this: Everyone concentrated on the word phallus instead of on the possible problem of misinterpreting the word child. We truly are sorry that people did this. If someone had told us what their real objection was, we could have corrected it.
In writing the chapter, we started out naturally enough talking about the sealing and blessing of children, and carried on then to the next step of first initiation. Unfortunately, we continued to use the word child through both those sections of the chapter. It was never our intent to say that anyone under eighteen (18) years of age should be initiated. In the preface to the revised version of Good Witch’s Bible we clearly stated that fact–in English.
The chapter was rewritten in June, 1969 CE, as Lecture IV of the School’s Essential Witchcraft course. That lecture deleted mention of the phallus. The School also does have a study relationship with parents of young adults. They have a special contract asking both the young adult and the parent to sign stating that the parent will supervise the student’s progress every step of the way. This is to honor the special need that young people have to express their personal identity through exploration, in a healthy manner, and to honor the requests of modern marketing. Modern marketing is something most of you are painfully aware, given that one of you making regular comments uses our writings to link to his books and another one of you brags of the enormous increase in traffic to her blog postings because she has chosen to discuss this current negative controversy. So much of this nonsense is internet marketplace driven, because you somehow imagine that you launching yourself based on a negative platform will do something beneficial for YOU, not your spiritual path. Are you enjoying your hubris, thinking you have something new to add? Growing your business or website traffic based on people’s pain? Really? How exactly do you believe you are honoring the Rede with that mess?
As things stand now, we will modify the extant copies of Good Witch’s Bible remaining on our shelves so that no further people can be misled.
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